"Fixed shot loading, target Japanese pirate camp outside Kyoto City, elevation angle 62 degrees, ready to... release!"

"Bang bang bang——"

On the fourteenth day of the first lunar month in the eighth year of the Apocalypse, when the people of the Ming Dynasty were preparing for the Lantern Festival one day later, the army led by Yan Siqi had already arrived at the gates of Kyoto.

After three months of defense, Osaka Castle was captured by Yan Siqi, and Matsudaira Tadaaki led the remaining troops to withdraw to Nara Castle.

At the same time, Zheng Zhilong in the southern part of the main island was unstoppable and successively attacked Yamaguchi, Hiroshima, Hyogo, Okayama, Tottori and other places.

The fall of the southern part of the island and the fall of Osaka Castle prompted Tokugawa Iemitsu, who commanded the 30,000 allied troops of the northern daimyo to move south, to quickly lead his troops to Kyoto Castle.

In Kyoto City, there is Emperor Gomizuo, the nominal ruler of the Yamato nation, and his family.

Although he was just a mascot under the Tokugawa shogunate, if he fell into the hands of the rebels, it would be a fatal blow to the authority of the shogunate.

At noon on the 14th, as the sun shone brightly, Yan Siqi, who was wearing armor and stomach, had gray-brown gloves on his hands and a wild goose feather knife on his waist, making him look very powerful.

Behind him were the Eighteen Zhizhi, among whom Zheng Zhilong stood out. After all, he led the troops to capture the Shijian area that Yan Siqi valued most.

In front of Yan Siqi and Shibazhi were more than 30 guards and more than 100 flag officers.

The establishment of the Gongwei battalion has been carefully selected and is divided into the following categories: chief soldier - staff general - garrison - chief flag officer - captain - corps commander - soldiers.

Yan Siqi summoned all the middle and high-level generals. Naturally, it couldn't be for show. What he wanted to say was very simple and crude:

"I told you everything else before the war. Although the scale of this battle is not big, it is still a battle that His Highness is concerned about. If you want to make a contribution, you must capture Kyoto in the shortest possible time and capture him alive.

The pirate king!"

As Yan Siqi's voice was conveyed, a spark of fire suddenly rose in everyone's heart. In today's era, who doesn't want to enjoy wealth and honor through military exploits?

Although they were dealing with Japanese pirates instead of Beilu and Jianlu, which reduced the reward for beheading to five taels, as long as they beheaded enough, they could still gain wealth through their military exploits.

"Take Kyoto... march on!"

Yan Siqi raised his arms and shouted, and all the middle and high-level generals in the audience shouted in response.

At this moment, they are less than three miles away from Kyoto City. This distance is not too far. At least after the Ming army generals conveyed the news to the people below, the cheers of tens of thousands of people were enough to reach the ears of the shogunate officials in Kyoto City.

middle.

The shogunate soldiers on the walls of Kyoto did not understand Chinese, but the senior officials of the shogunate were very familiar with sinology, and even Tokugawa Iemitsu himself could compose poetry.

Although it was only at the level of Qianlong in later generations, it was not considered bad in the shogunate.

When the senior officials of the shogunate heard the words "take Kyoto", their faces were all gloomy, and Tokugawa Tadanagi, who was a descendant of Tokugawa Hidetada, was even more furious.

"Bastard! Who do they think they are?! How dare they be so arrogant on the land of the Tokugawa family..."

"Iemitsu, I am willing to lead the army to fight against the enemy!"

"Huh, don't worry, Tadachang-kun. Wait until they get closer, lest they run to the beach before you fight."

On the side, Masamune Intatsu shouted in a low voice that he was an older daimyo and had become a very important figure since the Warring States Period, so he was not polite to Tokugawa Tadanagi at all.

"snort……"

A trace of anger flashed across Tokugawa Tadaga's face, but he was unwilling to argue before the battle, so he shut his mouth and sulked alone.

"Okay, we can't rush for a while. Since they dare to come to Kyoto City today, they must be prepared to stay!"

Tokugawa Iemitsu, who was kneeling on the throne, shouted coldly:

"Before I came, I had discussed it with the Minister of Taizheng."

"Although the vassal government has little money, it is enough to reward everyone for your achievements! If you can kill the enemy's generals, the high-ranking officials will naturally receive generous salaries!"

Having said this, Tokugawa Iemitsu bent down and bowed very solemnly.

"Please all of you, please work hard!"

"Hi!" Many famous people bowed in agreement, and the reason why they agreed so readily was because Tokugawa Iemitsu moved out Tokugawa Hidetada, who had already abdicated as regent.

Tokugawa Hidetada was the second generation shogun of the shogunate. Seven years after he succeeded to the throne, he followed the example of his father, Tokugawa Ieyasu, and gave up the throne to his son, Tokugawa Iemitsu, while he retired behind the scenes.

Now that Tokugawa Iemitsu has moved him out, it is obvious that Yan Siqi's resistance faction has reached a point where even Tokugawa Hidetada can't sit still.

Many famous people understood this and began to mobilize their troops after withdrawing from the castle tower in Kyoto.

At this moment, there are a total of 40,000 shogunate soldiers in Kyoto City. However, the resistance outside the city needs to defend Osaka Castle to prevent Osaka Castle from being attacked by Tokugawa Tadanagi of Nara. Therefore, the number is only 12,000, or four battalions. .

About half an hour later, the Ming army's 3,000 infantry troops and more than 300 Yanshan five-pound cannons arrived at the gates of Kyoto.

Although there was still three miles between the two sides, the atmosphere was extremely solemn and a war was almost about to break out.

More than 600 battalions of cavalry were roaming outside the infantry formation, alert to the possibility that Tokugawa Iemitsu might deploy surprise troops in the mountains surrounding Kyoto City.

As for the top of the city, looking at the arrangement of the Ming army, Tokugawa Iemitsu also looked very unhappy.

The number of artillery pieces in the shogunate was sparse, so even though Tokugawa Iemitsu knew that the rebels had many artillery pieces, after trying their best to mobilize them, they could only raise thirty-six artillery pieces.

With thirty-six against more than three hundred artillery pieces, this is not reliable at all...

Especially when the six hundred Ming Army cavalry were roaming around the Ming Army camp, their tall horses and their elite appearance made Tokugawa Iemitsu couldn't help but glance at his own cavalry.

The cavalry of the shogunate rode native Japanese horses, and the native horses were short and weak. The average height was only about four feet three inches. In addition, the height of the shogunate cavalry was generally only four feet four or five inches. Therefore, the shogunate cavalry used to It was once called the "Dwarf Corps" by Westerners who came to preach.

As for their war horses, they were jokingly called "large rats" by some missionaries.

Compared with the cavalry of the Ming army, the shogunate cavalry was like a monkey riding a dog.

Therefore, even before the war started, Tokugawa Iemitsu already felt that he had lost half of his spirit.

But he also has a little confidence, and that is the number of people.

Their number is almost four times that of the Ming army. In addition, they are defending the city, and the city of Kyoto is also considered to have an iron wall. Therefore, Tokugawa Iemitsu does not believe that the rebel Ming army can capture it in a very short time. them.

However, compared to Tokugawa Iemitsu's "confidence", the Ming army seemed more confident.

The six battalions of soldiers and horses under Yan Siqi's command, except for the two battalions in front, the other four battalions are all elites transferred from the Eastern Army's Governor's Mansion.

The long-term opponents of the Eastern Army Dudufu were Jianlu, so when facing the Jianlu and Japanese pirates, the soldiers of the Eastern Army Dudufu always maintained a superior attitude.

This posture is not only racially superior, but also tactically superior.

However, it was this superiority that deeply hurt the shogunate soldiers.

They built a camp of 7,000 people in front of the stone bridge outside Kyoto. The camp had various local defenses of the shogunate. In this regard, their tactics were actually not much behind the Ming army and Eurasia.

"First attack tentatively."

Tokugawa Iemitsu wanted to test the strength of the resistance faction, so he asked Masamune Intatsu, who had always wanted to be the vanguard, to go outside the city and lead seven thousand people outside the city to test it out.

The combat power of the Ming army.

After receiving the order, Tokugawa Tadanagi completely dropped his aloof attitude and became vigilant after seeing the appearance of the Ming army with his own eyes.

Therefore, when he left the city, he did not directly order the army to rush out in one piece, but followed traditional tactics and approached step by step.

In the traditional combat method of the shogunate, the iron artillery and bow and arrow ashigaru were usually placed in front, followed by the spear ashigaru, with eight hundred shogunate cavalry on both sides, preparing for an opportunity to attack from the side.

It's just that this set of tactics that have won many victories did not have much effect in front of the Ming army, because the gap in musketry technology and the number of artillery between the two sides was enough to cause the shogunate soldiers to suffer a lot.

Sure enough, when the distance between the shogunate soldiers and the Ming army gradually approached five miles, the Ming army's artillery positions were also ready.

The gunnery officer had already demarcated the firing boundary and waved down the red flag that had already been raised. All the gunners who saw the flag message put torches in front of the gun doors and lit the standard-length fuses.

"Bang bang bang——"

More than three hundred Yanshan five-pound cannons roared. They were divided into six batches of fifty guns each and fired continuously.

Only in the first moment, more than fifty stone bullets accompanied by arcs directly penetrated the marching formation of the shogunate soldiers.

The mud splashed up by the stone bullets caught the remains of the shogunate soldiers and sprayed a plume of blood mist in the air.

The corpses lying everywhere fell to the ground like harvested wheat.

After seeing this scene, Tokugawa Iemitsu stood on the top of Kyoto City and couldn't help but hold the telescope tightly. His heart sank to the bottom...

This means that his previous prediction was correct. The power of the Ming army's artillery was not small, and its range was far beyond the range of their artillery.

When he thought of this, Tokugawa Tadaga glanced at the daimyo who were watching the battle from the side, and saw that their faces had turned pale. He believed that they already understood the strength of the resistance faction on the opposite side.

Indeed, just this round of shelling made Tokugawa Iemitsu regret it.

The resistance he faced could not be formed by Yan Siqi alone!

"Ming dynasty……"

Tokugawa Iemitsu recalled Matsudaira Tadaaki's advice to him. At present, it seemed that Matsudaira Tadaaki was right. Behind Yan Siqi there must be Daming.

"Can't fight anymore..."

Thinking of this, Tokugawa Iemitsu looked at Masamune Yonda expectantly, and his voice became extremely hard:

"Yin Dajun, I think this battle can only end here. I want to send you as an envoy to make peace with the rebels..."

Hearing this, Yin Da Zhengzong couldn't help but sigh lowly, and the brows on his face became more and more frowned.

After a moment, he slowly said:

"Behind Yan Siqi, there should be Ming. If Ming wants to take action against us, then our negotiation with Yan Siqi cannot stop Ming."

"Besides, general, the war has just started and it is not appropriate to ask for peace. If we don't ask for peace, I'm afraid we will be treated like a defeat."

Tokugawa Iemitsu was confused just now, but after hearing Masamune Yin's reminder, he immediately reacted.

No matter what, this battle must be fought to completion. Otherwise, given the current situation, how could the rebels and Ming Dynasty give themselves a generous peace treaty?
To be continued...